Two Branles d'Escosse (Branles of Scotland)

• Era: mid-1500s

When Thoinot Arbeau (pseudonym of Jehan Tabourot) published his book of dances, Orchésographie (available in English translation as Orchesography), in the late 1580s, he described "regional" branles for Poitou, Brittany, and Scotland.  It is not clear whether the two Branles d'Escosse (literally "Branles of Scotland" but colloquially known as the Scottish Branles) he gives, the first and second in a suite of unknown length, were actually imported from Scotland, or merely a romantic French conception of what the Scots were doing.  The timing is suggestive: Arbeau described the Branles d'Escosse as having been "en vogue" around twenty years before, which would place them in the 1560s, soon after the marriage of the teenaged Mary Stuart to the future François II in 1558 and their brief reign from 1559-1560, though since Mary had been raised in France from the age of five, it seems unlikely that she personally introduced these dances!  Music still exists (published by Pierre Attaignant) for other suites of Branles d'Escosse, but no further dance instructions have come to light.

This pair of branles is choreographically notable in being the only standard branles to use the pied croisé (shown to the left) in which the free foot is crossed in front during a hop.  (There are grèves croisées in Arbeau's Gavottes, but those are atypical for other reasons.)

Performance
Formation: a line or circle of people holding hands.  Couples (men to the left of their partners) would probably have been the standard, but there are no gender-specific moves in these branles.  All steps are taken sideways, rather than forward and back.  Steps should be small (about shoulder-width); leaps and kicks should be restrained and fairly gentle.  In the absence of the rest of the original suite, the two sequences are typically danced in alternation, two or more repeats of the first followed by two or more of the second, and so on.

Translation of terms from French to English
Double: double
Simple: single
Pied en l'air: kick
Sault & capriole: jump & capriole

The first branle of Scotland
Double left.  Double right.  Single left, single right

Counts/Steps
1-4     Step left, close right, step left, hop on left  (double left)
5-8     Step right, close left, step right, hop on right (double right)
9-12   Step left, hop left; step right, hop on right (single left, single right)

The second branle of Scotland
Double left.  Single right, single left.  Double right.
Double left.  Single right.  Kick right, kick left, kick right, jump & capriole.

Counts/Steps
1-4     Step left, close right, step left, hop on left  (double left)
5-8     Step right, hop right; step left, hop on left (single right, single left)
9-12   Step right, close left, step right, hop on right (double right)
13-16 Step left, close right, step left, hop on left  (double left)
17-18 Step right, hop right (single right)
19      (leaping onto the left foot) Kick right foot forward
20      (leaping onto the right foot) Kick left foot forward
21      (leaping onto the left foot) Kick right foot forward
22      Jump straight up into the air with a capriole

Important style notes
On each of  the hops, the free foot is crossed gently in front of the opposite leg in a move called pied croisé, as illustrated above.  Don't point the toe; we are still pre-ballet!  On the jump, the legs (or feet) should be rapidly swished back and forth in midair as many times as the dancer can manage.  Arbeau's illustration of a capriole is to the right.

Recordings for Dancing
My favorite version is on Compagnie Maître Guillaume's Dance Music of the French Renaissance.  I also like Wolgemut's Tempus Saltandi.  And while I don't personally own Guide des Instruments de la Renaissance, their sound clip sounds quite promising.

Comments

[Cathy]

I do love these branles. Thanks for the post. Now I'll have the tune stuck in my head all day, though. Grr...

[Marilee J. Layman]

Yikes. Jumping and swiishing legs as fast as possible. Definitely for the energetic!

[Urraca]

Since the only thing that sets these branles apart from the others in Orchesography is that pied croisé kick, I wonder if that is what made them "Scottish". I wonder if that kick, so prominent in later Scottish dancing, was already a feature of Scottish regional style, so much so that a Frenchman would use it to pantomime dancing like a Scotsman.

[Susan de Guardiola]

Urraca: Could be that, or could be that it was the French conception of what "Scottish" was. I'd be reluctant to make any definite statement about Scottish dance of the era in the absence of direct evidence. The 19th-century Scottische and Ecossoise don't appear to have had any particular connection to Scotland at all.

The pied croisé is in some of Arbeau's galliard variations as well, for whatever that's worth.